The weekly messenger., 1887-09-17
ADETECTIVE STORY.
LUCK OFTEN HELPS THEM OUT
OUT OF A DILEMMA.
The Young Man who had his Hand
Caught in a Trap.

or three very shrewd rlscals chung mp"
the town for three or four weeks in a
way which annoyed us not a little.
They were chaps known as porch climb
ers, and the way they did their business
was simply slick. Porch climbing was
then in its infancy. A sneak thief might
be ready to take advantage Of an open
door or window on the lower story, but
as for "shinning up a column to reach
a balcony, or using light ladder to en-
ter a chamber window, no one had ever
tried it.
The very first job done by the gang
resulted in haul of 5000 worth o. jew
elry. Your common thief no sooner has
any plumber in his hand than he hastens
off to the pawnshop to make a raise.
This jewelry was not put up, neither
were the second and third hauls. Then
we knew that we he'd to deal with ras-
Gals who had come well heeled and were
holding on to their stuff or shipping it
to some other city for sale. The first
three robberies were made Mt the supper
hour, when all the family were In the
dining-rOom or down stairs. The papers
made such an ado about it as to place
citizens on their guard. and the thieves
changed their hours. 1t was in summer,
and very hot weather, and al upstairs
windows were open for ventilation.
They went into three or four houses
through seconds story windows in the
evening or up to as late as midnight,
and cleaned ont Jewel cases without be-
ing seen or heard.
Perhaps the boldest feat was the sixth
lob undertaken. There was small
one-story house standing beside an ele-
CANT mansion. The little house was on
corner. One of the fellows mounted
to the roof, crcpt along to the larger
house, and then assembled the tin con
ductor on the big house to bath room
window. The blinds inside were lock-
ed, but he hung to the sill with one
hand until he could open them with the
other. People on the street saw him,
and n policeman called ont TO know
what he was lcing. The fellow was
then sitting i'll the window dangling his
legs III careless way, and he replied:
Jim and do tnat for exercise every
night"
With that he disappeared into the
bath room and proceeded to ransack the
various rooms on that floor. 1t seemed
that all the family except n daughter
were away to neighbor's, and the
young la1y had beau in the parlor.
The servants were out on n rear veranda,
and the rooms were thus at the mercy of
the thief. He took his time in making his
search, and, while he was after money
and iewelry first, he did not despise
laces, opera glasses, and valuable bric-a-
brac. He made up n large bundle of
stuff, took cigar which he found on a
mantel, and was putting away in the
coolest manner when he descended the
front stairs. The girl heard him and
came ont into the hall and asked:
''Did You want to see papa
"Yes, my DEAR" WAS the ready reply;
"but he seems to be ont. Tell him I
called, will you.'
"What is the Nance
"Wilcox-Judge Wilcox. | brought
my Egyptian curios over for him to look
ut, but some other night will do as well. F"
She saw him depart without thought
of how he entered, and tie robbery was,
of course, discovered later on. The de-
tectives were instructed to let every
thing drop to hunt down these slick fel-
lows, and thorc was any amount of curs-
inc and jawinS over oar III luck. We
had every hotel and boarding house
under strict scrutiny, but We could turn
up no suspicious characters answering
to the description of these. The man
who sat on the sill of the bath room
window was said to have long, black
whiskers. The one who passed fo-
Judge Wilcox had auburn Burnsides,
and WAS an Unctuous sort of n fellow.
Five hundred men could have been
found III a days hunt to answer these
descriptions. For many days the post
office was watched, strangers were